Avatar100 Drabbles
by Jesus.Lives
Summary: Just posted randomly from what I put up on LJ.So far: IROH, and GURU PATHIK. UP NOW: Jet the ANTIHERO.
1. Iroh

**_#72 - Noon - Iroh isn't indifferent towards the color red..._**  
**Title:** Seeing Red  
**Author:** Boomeraang  
**Word Count:** 290  
**Warnings:** None.  
**Challenge:** #72 - Noon  
**Notes:** What is Iroh's greatest fear?

The sky was always red this time of day. Either a tinge or an all-out splash of crimson, like the flowing blood of the goat (mixed into a stew, his specialty) they would eat that evening when the sun was well and truly gone from the sky.

It was the contrast of the sun going down over mountains and mingling with the hazy fog that went over the city, masking the evils that were done there.

There was something satisfying about the color red, something passionate; something that made him surge with the power from his youth and try to ignore the feelings of destruction that came when his eyes met the crimson color he was once so loyal to.

He wasn't that man anymore.

He had been hard. He had been strong. He had ignored so many cries for help at the conquest of his nation.

_The Dragon of the West._

Oh, how he once enjoyed hearing that name. To know the fear it inspired in others.

The bright overlay of the red reflection swept over him, the fire within him surging as if an accelerant had just been added to the mix.

He waited until the embers burned down, before he went back inside.

There was tea to serve. A nephew to love. A reformed man to be.

Sometimes Iroh wondered if (when it came down to it) he could be that man again. Seeing the bright tinge of red in the afternoon sun, he knew the answer.

Deeper still, he knew that it was what he was running from and why he intended to live out the rest of his years in the Earth Kingdom, where he could have peace and (more importantly) be safe... from himself.


	2. Guru Pathik

**_Challenge #73 Entry  
_Title**: Flow of Destiny  
**Summary**: Guru Pathik has learnt to accept all things, with the knowledge that all things go to the same end.  
**Notes**: I actually worked hard on this one. So comments would be nice.  
**Words**: 144

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Acceptance was to him much less a word than an ontological practice, which is why when the young monk left, Guru Pathik went back to his banana-onion puree and closed his eyes with a hum.

The young Avatar wasn't ready for all there was... yet.

If the child Aang knew that everything in existence was nothing more than a complex wave of illusions warping their way through the fabric of space and time  
(especially the illusion of choice itself)... then the Avatar would have realized his actions followed the determination of Fate alone and perhaps, acted accordingly.

Guru Pathik knew how it was all going to end, and knew wisely some things were better not to tell the Avatar, as the courses of destiny were already running as fluidly as the unobstructed ponds that represented the system of chakras in the body.


	3. Jet

**_#74 Hero Challenge - Merciless_**  
**Title:** Merciless  
**Author:** Boomeraang  
**Word Count: **360  
**Challenge:** #74 Hero

On the arctic shores of the Water Tribe, a boy followed his warrior father, learning mercy along the way.  
In a modest Earth Kingdom village, a young earthbender learned bravery from his earthbending father.  
In the temple in the sky, another boy learned ingenuity from his father known widely as an inventor.  
In the dark halls of the Fire Nation palace, a prince learned the value of honor from his noble family.  
And the Avatar learned duty from the previous Avatars, who helped guide him along the way – providing and example of what he, in turn, should be.

Having a hero is not a certainty. In the times of war - orphans, ostracized to the wilderness struggled in the midst of an unforgiving winter.

One, a boy at a delicate age, sat alone sharpening weapons that would help him get through the next day without starving.

He had never been taught mercy, bravery, ingenuity, honor, duty… only vengeance and survival, learned from a past of ashes.

How could one be merciful if never been shown mercy? How could one express love who has never sensed the presence of it?

Not knowing a hero, he nevertheless tried to be one for the fellow kids  
that he didn't want to end up the same as him. He gave them all he could offer. Did it matter he wasn't quite the right sort of hero?

Through the young boys deep eyes, at the end of the journey, his leader's face was brazen in the dull light of the underground prison... and in that prison, he remembered all that he'd taught him.

A fighting spirit. _Never give up. Never show weakness._

There were too many qualities that the self-made leader lacked to be the type of hero a blessed youth could admire. But for the broken, he offered hope.  
To the broken, he was a hero.

Having no legacy himself to go by, the legacy he'd created himself would live on, through the eyes of a boy who'd just found out that his leader was right all along.

_There was no mercy, for the merciless._


End file.
